Modoc County

Part 6: Cedar Pass

Hit the road pre-dawn again, and stopped at the entrance
to the national forest, which happened to be right at
Cedar Pass
Campground as well. The first new bird was a singing
MacGillivray's Warbler! Not wanting to disturb the campers I found a
road that led out of the campground and emptied out near what looked like a
huge storage building, but ironically this turned out to be a great stop, as
a Dipper was singing a lovely song right behind it! Got a glimpse of
him bobbing before he spotted me and took off...

A stop at the pass itself was glorious; got to see
the MacGillivray's, plus a baby House Wren came to say hello. A female
hummer came right up to me that I thought was Calliope at first, but a look
at the photos I got of the perched bird showed a tail longer than the wings,
so I'm presuming a migrant Rufous. I once again heard that Least
Flycatcher-like call that I associate with Hammond's, so I don't know what
to make of that (heard a bona fide Dusky at a later stop).

Views along the pass

I presumed this was a Rufous
Hummingbird because the tail appears to extend beyond the wings, but I’m willing to be talked into Calliope!

Juvenile House Wren

Found what I thought was
the upper end of the Cedar Creek Trail, but it was actually the middle
portion; it was a nice wide trail with several Warbling Vireos and
Butterbutts, and again heard both forms of "Western" Flycatcher calls.
The road down to this section was quite birdy, however; had several
Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Cassin's Vireo, Butterbutts, Western Tanagers,
Green-tailed Towhees, and other things that didn't wanna come out.
Found the "real" Upper Cedar Creek Trail, which was a delightful
interpretive trail that would have been fun to do had there been more than
one person and two cars (park one at the bottom and hike one-way)! But
the scenery along this portion was gorgeous with open meadows, aspen, and
firs; what I wasn’t prepared for were the mosquitoes! Had a Mom
Junco with a nose full of food for the chicks, and on the way back a
Red-breasted Sapsucker sat out in the open on a distant dead tree; I was
almost expecting only Red-naped on this side of the mountains, but I guess
this is where we get our hybrids!

It looked like there was a decent road up to Stough
Reservoir, so I checked that out (it was actually just a little pond), and
again, there was a camper there, so I continued up the road. A large
raptor in a dead tree got my juices going at first, but it turned out just
to be a Cooper's... The road got a little too dicey for my taste, so I
turned around at the top, but what a wonderful spot to stop! You felt
like you were on the top of the world with open scrub, scattered conifers,
and a wonderful view! I was watching a Kestrel through the scope and
wasn't paying attention to the bird singing behind me; when I finally woke
up my brain said, "Gray Flycatcher!" but by that time it shut up and I
wanted to get a better listen to confirm it... I think it was up here
I heard the Dusky as well, along with an Olive-sided Flycatcher.

Past Stough Reservoir you climb the hill

Headed down the road, stopping periodically, and had yet
another Red-breasted Sapsucker at a great spot with cottonwoods and willows!
Stopped at the lower Cedar Creek Trail, which was an old stage coach road
evidently, and went along some wonderful creekside habitat with more Macs
and Warbling Vireos. You could see where there had been a big fire
across the way as well. A pair of White-headed Woodpeckers hitched up
one tree, one with food for the kids. Had a knockout Western Tanager
as well.

Heading down the road to the Lower Cedar Creek Trail

Western Wood Pewee along the trail

Road-birded down to Cedarville from there, picking up a
Spotted Towhee for the day. (I asked the group if the Spotted Towhees
on this side of the mountains sing a more Drink your TEEE
type song
rather than the "raspberry" song ours in San Diego sing, as I never once
heard the latter but periodically heard the former, which wasn't as complex
as the Green-tailed Towhees.) Headed over to the causeway, as that was
recommended by a fellow Calbirder for shorebirds, and it turned out to be a
good spot; picked up meadowlarks and a Sage Thrasher before actually hitting
the lake, where the first thing to fly by was a flock of Long-billed
Curlews! At various stops along the causeway had both Ring-billed and
California Gulls, Spotted Sandpiper, lots of Killdeer and Willets, and a
single Avocet and ratty-looking Wilson's Phalarope. Found where I was
going to be spending the weekend (Surprise
Valley Hot Springs, as it was the only place to turn around) and picked
up Loggerhead Shrike for the day there. Nearly beaned another Sage
Thrasher on the way back to the causeway...

More scenes heading on...

You abruptly find yourself in Surprise Valley!

Cedarville

Middle Alkalai Lake from the causeway (Highway 299)

California and Ring-billed Gulls like to hang out here (among other things),
along with a Western Meadowlark (token land bird)

L-R: two Willets, two male Wilson's Phalaropes,
and an American Avocet

Desert habitat across from the spa

Headed back to town and then south to pick up Deep Creek
Road up into the mountains again; this is a delightful, good gravel road
that takes you to
Pepperdine Campground and beyond to Alturas (actually joining up with
the road I was on the day before). It starts out in flat farmland
where I picked up Magpie, Western Kingbird, Violet-green Swallows on a wire,
Swainson's Hawk, and the urban finches for the day. Getting into the
woods you're driving along Greens Canyon for awhile (according to the map),
and the scenery was just spectacular with the big rock formations! Had
a nice Red-tailed Hawk perched at eye level on a dead tree, along with a
pair of Warbling Vireos giving him fits! The woods were getting pretty
quiet except for the ubiquitous chickadees, robins, Butterbutts, and
tanagers, but a Hermit Thrush was serenading me at one stop. At
another stop where there was some streamside vegetation a female Calliope
Hummingbird buzzed around (when she perched, she definitely had a
teeny tiny tail!).

Cemetery and grasslands at the start of Deep Creek Road

Violet-green Swallow climbing into the National Forest

Scenes along the canyon with a Red-tailed Hawk

Once you cleared the summit the road opened up into some
beautiful grassland, but I suspect some of this was due to the fires, as it
looked as though it had been cleared years ago. But there were some
bona fide meadows; in fact, what may have been the birds of the day had one
area staked out, about a half mile pass the turnoff to Dry Creek Basin:
three territorial White-crowned Sparrows! At first I didn't think
Sibley showed them here in summer, so I was really wondering whether these
birds were common knowledge! (They were definitely the oriantha type...) Later I had several Calbirders confirm that they did indeed
breed, and a closer look at the book also confirmed that they justscootch into California! Trying to pish them closer for a
digiscoped shot also brought up a silent Brewer's Sparrow. Later the road
passed through more open rocky areas with Mountain Bluebirds, a nice male
Cassin's Finch, and Chipping Sparrow families.

Apparent burned area

Meadows like these had breeding White-crowned Sparrows of
the Rocky Mountain race (left), which just makes it into California
here!

More scenes of the high places...

Mountain Bluebirds love this stuff!

I eventually made it to Pepperdine Campground where I
hiked the Summit Trail; it joined the road to the campground at about the
ten minute mark, so it made for a nice loop. The only new birds were
some Coots and Ring-necked Ducks on the marshy pond below the road.

Summit Trail

Decided to call it a day after that, but the road
to Granger Pass looked like it was also a good road (and joined the main
road later), so I decided to take that back. Aside from a gorgeous
view of Surprise Valley, I discovered the road wasn't as good as the map
made it out to be, and the closer I got to Granger Canyon, the worse the
road got! (The nice man at the gas station in town confirmed that that
road was closed for a long time following a massive washout years ago…) So I
hitailed it outta there (especially since it was starting to sprinkle) and
made my way back to the main road. Jip and I were filthy by the time
we got back to Cedarville, especially after getting stuck behind a utility
truck for awhile who was raising so much dust you couldn't see! He
very nicely let me by, though... Once past him picked up a whistling
Townsend's Solitaire for the day.

Had a nice dark morph Redtail in the flatlands before
checking into the resort. At first I was surprised by how small the
room was, and they indeed had some bigger ones, so I made arrangement to
move the next day, but it’s definitely an isolated place! Had fun perusing
the "journal" in the room that they encourage you to write in; most everyone
was there for a wedding anniversary or some romantic getaway! Not this
little gray duck…